Bryce Canyon…HooDoo…You Do….Or, You Must

Bryce Canyon…HooDoo…You Do….Or, You Must

Like nothing you have ever seen before, Bryce Canyon will leave you in awe while your jaw involuntarily just drops without notice. The colors and structures (which we later learned are called HooDoo’s, pronounced “WhooooDooooo” in a spooky, ghostlike voice) are breathtaking. It is beyond amazing what Mother Nature has created for our viewing and exploring pleasure.

If nothing else, you have to at least do the 18 mile scenic drive and stop off at a couple spots to take in the views and of course get some selfies. You can’t be within an hour of this wonderful park and not at least stop in.

So, not only did we do the 18 mile drive, of course we had to do some hiking as well. We decided we wanted to hike about 5 miles that day so we pieced 2 trails that would meet and do a loop back. The two trails were Queens Garden Trail (easy to moderate hike) and Navajo Loop Trail (again, a moderate hike). These two hikes combined are now highly recommended by me. That says a lot, no, seriously. Hahahaa. Just make sure you are ready for your legs to be jelly, you have plenty of water, and you are ready for what turns out to be a pretty extreme hike if you aren’t prepared. As a side note, this should be a loop, however, part of it was closed, so we had to go back down Navajo Trail, meet Queen’s Garden Trail and then go back up. All in all, making this about a 6.2 mile hike.

This hike proved to be a little different than most of our hikes to this date. We met a volunteer guide who gave us a ton of information about his job, how he got it, what he does and where he has been. At this point I have decided this is my dream job. Yes, I realize it’s not really a job since he volunteers and doesn’t get paid, but if I could do what he does (travel the country, hike around, talk to people, enjoy nature, help people if need be and repeat) my life would be complete. Steve Bersinke (volunteer guide) shared with us another hike we should do if we had enough energy left. Of course I did, and of course we needed to do it. No way was I going to miss a 1 mile, easy hike that goes to a waterfall because Jason was tired. I’d leave him i the car if I had to. Hahaha, but seriously, I would. Again, another story so click here if you want to hear about Mossy Cave.

So after hours of hiking, being covered in red dust, smelling like we hadn’t showered in days, we decide we were too exhausted to cook dinner for ourselves. In fact, we were so exhausted that we thought we might not even eat, just shower and go to bed. However, we know ourselves pretty well and knew that the moment we got back to Wander, showered and sat down, we would be starving. With that being said decided against the later and settled on the idea of going somewhere, even though we were super stinky.

We had noticed a soup and pie place on the way to Bryce that we were determined to make an appearance at before we left the area so we figured, now is as good as any. So, without any further ado, we finally arrived (yes, when you are exhausted from hiking around 8 miles and hangry, finally may be an understatement).

If you want to hear about this AMAZING restaurant that we will definitely visit again, not only in our dreams but also in person, click here.

So, after our check is paid, it’s time to head home. On the final stretch we saw a deer about a hundred feet from Wanda, took a couple pics and rolled on because Jason decided it was responsible to wait to pee even though he had a full bladder when we left the restaurant. Joke was on him…..he almost wet himself.

The night ended like many others with relaxing drinks and watching the stars ‘wandering’ what’s really out there followed by a deep sleep to the relaxing sounds of logs being sawed….aka….snoring.

Fun Facts:

Bryce Canyon was named after Ebenezer Bryce in 1874 after the area was settled by Mormon pioneers back in 1850.

Bryce Canyon is reported to cover 35,835 acres which is approximately 56 square miles

It is technically not a canyon because it was formed from erosion from a central stream

HooDoo’s are up to 200 feet high

45 species of butterflies and moths have been reported leading to an assumption of over 1,000 different species of insects in all